Bremer, Carl-Johan

Guchia, Edouard

Abstract [en]

The implication of e-commerce into our society has revolutionized the way consumers purchase products, and consumer buying behavior. The Internet enables consumers to access a global range of products, which are delivered directly to their own homes, and all within the confines of their own home.We have chosen to investigate students in a middle-size town as a consumer group. Students are a particularly interesting consumer group due to the facts that they have unique conditions in their day-to-day consumption. Young age, a restrictive monthly budget and relatively well educated in the use of internet are characteristics that can attributed to most students, and are of great significance in regard to the buying process on the internet. With this in mind we have shaped a purpose for this essay.The purpose of this essay is to broaden our understanding of students’ preparations before conducting a purchase on the Internet, this will be achieved through studying students buying behavior.The study shall also aim at broadening the seller’s knowledge of consumer preferences on the Internet in regard to how they prepare for a upcoming purchase.The result will highlight the problem definition and will be put into perspective with the entire buying process.The theories, which shall lie as the foundation for the analysis of our investigation, are drawn from results of past studies within the research area. In addition we will include established theories within marketing in order to put our own research in a broader context.The study is conducted in a deductive method and we also describe it as comparative as we will relate our results to the results of past studies within the same research area. The main conclusions of this study are:- Student preparation for purchases on the Internet is highly based on past experience and personal preference.- Student preparation for purchases on the Internet is done within and outside of the Internet.- Students associate purchases on the Internet with positive and negative feelings.- The positive associations can lead to impulse purchases of related products.We present this study’s implications for students as a consumer group and for sellers on the Internet, and we end the essay with propositions for further research within the area.